Moon Breathing for Better Sleep?

In through your nose, out through your mouth.

Out like a light.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if falling asleep easily was just as simple as breathing? Maybe it can be.

You’ve likely noticed that you can change the way you feel almost instantly with a few breaths. You can rev up and energize with a few quick, powerful breaths. You’re able to focus your attention or calm down anger by taking several deep, steady breaths. You can relax and seemingly slow your world down by keeping your inhales and exhales slow and smooth. It’s even thought that certain breathing techniques can help you lose weight. This breathing thing we do is just all-around good stuff.

“So,” you might ask, “how is it that I’ve been breathing my entire life, every minute of every hour of every day, and I’m not getting all these great benefits? Sounds like a load of…hooey! And what the heck is this ‘moon breathing’ all about, huh?”

Let’s take those questions one at a time.

It’s true, we all breathe, all the time, but that’s the autonomic nervous system keeping us alive by making sure we breathe, our hearts beat, and our temperature stays in the right range, among other things.

When you concentrate on and manipulate your breathing pattern with breathing exercises – aka breathwork – you can affect the way your body feels and functions.

It’s almost magical how you can amp up or calm down your body with breathwork. Much of the information, technique and science of using the breath to achieve specific objectives comes from yoga.

Don’t do yoga regularly? Never tried it at all? No problem. You don’t need any yoga experience to take advantage of its powerful breathing techniques.

What is Moon Breathing?
In yoga practice, the left side of the body is called the moon side. Moon energy is thought to be cooling and calming to the mind and body, so breathing through your left nostril helps you access this energy. That’s why it’s called moon breathing or the moon breath.

As you might expect, the right side is considered the sun side and is associated with power, focus and clarity. Accessing this energy is fantastic in the morning when you need to rev up, or mid-afternoon if you need a little energy pick-me-up. But for now, let’s stick with the relaxing end of things.

There are a couple of different techniques for left-nostril breathing. One is to block the right nostril and breathe slowly and deeply, in and out of the left nostril only. The other method is to alternate breathing in on the left side and out on the right side. You can do this by gently pinching the nostril closed with your thumb or finger. Continue doing these breaths for a few minutes or until you feel relaxed and sleepy.

Other Breathing Exercises
Full disclosure here, we believe that breathing exercises are a powerful relaxing tool in general. And the above left- or alternate-nostril exercises have real potential for calming you and helping you sleep. But it’s probably not because of the side you’re breathing through. The simple act of breathing mindfully can be enough to get you ready to fall asleep.

Concentrating on your breath has several immediate effects.

1. You almost always begin breathing more deeply than you were. We tend to breathe very shallowly most of the time. You’ve probably noticed that you occasionally become aware of taking in a huge, deep breath, and that it feels really good. Our bodies – including our brains – need oxygen and breathing deeply is a form of nourishment. We need it!
2. When you focus on your breath, you can’t focus on much else. Things like your to-do list, money worries, job stress, or any other daily concerns we all keep spinning around in our brains all the time fall away while your brain is otherwise occupied with your breathing. It’s like a little break from all that pressure, and it can be enough to get you relaxed and able to fall asleep.
3. Deep, diaphragmatic breathing stimulates your vagus nerve, which is a long and wandering cranial nerve that travels from the brain stem, down through the chest, and into the colon. When stimulated, the vagus nerve activates your parasympathetic nervous system to relax, lowering your stress levels, regulating and slowing your heart rate, and generally putting the brakes on any “fight-or-flight” reactions you may be experiencing.

Pretty amazing, isn’t it? That something so simple to learn, easy to do, only takes a few minutes and is completely free can have such a profound effect on getting to sleep more easily.

There are lots of apps and YouTube videos out there showing different calming breathing techniques. Poke around a bit and find some that you really like and that help you get relaxed.

I found Jon Kabat Zinn’s Body Scan Guided Meditation many years ago during a particularly stressful time in my life. It was so long ago that it was on cassette tape. (I still have those tapes…but nothing to play them on!) It’s now available for purchase on MP3, or you can listen for free on YouTube.

The idea of the Body Scan isn’t to fall asleep. In fact, one of the first things he says at the beginning of the recording is, “It is best if you can manage to stay awake throughout the duration of the tape.” Oops! The purpose of the Body Scan is to be a relaxing, deep breathing, mindfulness meditation technique. But I’ll be honest, it’s so truly relaxing, I almost always fall asleep when I do it.

When I first started using it, I noticed that I fell asleep faster each time I did it. Now, it only takes a few minutes and I’m out. So, my apologies to Dr. Kabat Zinn, but this really works for me!

For more ideas on how to help yourself fall asleep, check out this article about sleep hygiene which includes some helpful hints. And for more ideas, take a quick spin around 15 Tips for Better Sleep.